


I Don't Really Want to Be the Very Best

by Commandant



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions, Red vs. Blue
Genre: David "I don't even want to be here" Washington, Pokemon AU, Project Freelancer, alternate universe where nothign bad happens, except where bad things eventually happen, expect mercs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-03 23:39:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4118875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Commandant/pseuds/Commandant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David Washington never wanted to be a Pokemon trainer, but fate seems to have other plans for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Don't Really Want to Be the Very Best

It was already 8PM but the sun still hadn’t set. The height of summer held the sun in the sky for an impossibly long time, and David could hear the nincadas buzzing their songs in the tall grass beyond town.  
A hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his own head. It was Caleb’s hand, large and firm, and David looked up at the other boy’s stony face as if searching for answers. Caleb nodded his head at the ball he held loosely in his other hand.  
“Oh, right,” David stammered, reaching into his bag to pull out a ball of his own, staring at it a moment before looking up at his friend. “You’re really leaving tonight?”  
Caleb nodded in response as the expression on his face remained unchanged. He held the ball out, urging him to take it.  
The pokeball in David’s hand suddenly felt extraordinarily heavy. Heavier even than the Pokemon inside it. He bit his lip and whispered, “look after Caleb for me, Bruno,” before trading the ball for the one Caleb held out to him.  
A look passed across Caleb’s face that only David would identify as a smile. He turned to walk away, but when David looked up, the couple his friend walked toward wasn’t the Maines. No those faces were far less familiar, more indistinct, they were—  
“Mom! Dad!” He cried out, surprise and longing in his voice as he broke into a run after them only to trip and fall on his face. “Wait!” he yelped as he fought to get back on his feet despite bloody palms and knees, despite how everything was dissolving into a muddy mix of orange summer hues. “Wait! Don’t leave! You can’t leave me like this!” he stumbled through the indistinct landscape that melted around him. Nincada chirping was deafening in his ears, shaking his vision.

Blurry colors resolved themselves in an instant, suddenly and sharply, into the shape of his aunt’s face. The buzzing shifted pitch into the blare of his alarm clock. He realized that hand on his shoulder was hers.  
“You still with me, kiddo?” she asked as he blinked blearily. He shook his head and she laughed, thumping him on the arm before turning to saunter out of the room. “Up and at ’em, Davey,” she chirped, “I’ve got a mission for you.”  
He wondered in half-dread what she could possibly mean by that, but didn’t actually sit up out of bed until he heard the beep of a message on the pokeNav by his bed.  
It was a message from Connie; “Hey Wash, you up for seeing the new Brycenman movie with me tonight? I’ll buy you dinner.”  
He smirked to himself before typing out his response; “Dinner and a movie, is this a date Connie?” Of course, it wasn’t. They’d been friends since they were little, since before Caleb moved away even. He was pretty sure Connie wasn’t even interested in boys.  
“Oh my god,” was the immediate reply, “you know it isn’t, don’t be a smartass!”  
Wash laughed to himself, pausing a minute to change his clothes. “I dunno, auntie says she has a ‘mission’ for me, I’ll let you know,” he replied, frowning at the text as he wondered again what ridiculous plot was in store for him today.  
When he walked out into the expansive main room of the apartment, he saw his aunt walk out of the kitchen, balancing three plates of bacon and eggs on her arms like a waitress. She put two on the table and the third on the floor in front of his skitty Nina. He was alarmed until he realized the third plate had kibble, not people food. He rubbed at his eyes, yawning. He was tired still, he guessed. “Hey Nina,” Wash cooed as he crouched down next to the Pokemon, scratching her head so that she mewed cutely.  
He tore himself away to sit at the table across from his aunt. “So,” he asked in between bites of bacon, “what is this mission?”  
She smiled, and he knew from the crookedness of it that there was some plotting afoot, as usual. “I need you to go to Mauville and pick up a package for me,” she responded finally, feeding a bit of egg to the swellow perched on her shoulder, “Angel hurt her wing so she can’t fly me over there.”  
Wash frowned, “the tunnel to Verdanturf is closed again, how do you expect me to get there?”  
“That’s why it’s a mission,” she said with a smile. This was the catch, he realized. It would be a huge trek for him to get to Mauville. “I’m sure you can figure something out, you’re a smart kid.”  
“I keep telling you, I’m not becoming a trainer,” he replied flatly, “I know that’s what you want.” He glanced over at the bookcase where the framed picture of his aunt and her old Pokemon team sat, affixed with the plaque “479th Pokemon league champion.” She was retired now, of course. But that just seemed to drive her to encourage him to try for the league as well.  
“Well, I wouldn’t complain,” she replied, picking up both empty plates before standing up, “but I mean it, I really need you to get that package for me. Do whatever you need to do.” She started to walk towards the kitchen, “I already packed a bag for you, good luck kiddo.”  
He glanced over to the door and indeed, there was already a bag sitting next to it, waiting for him. He couldn’t help but let out a groan, looking over at his Pokemon who was still eating her breakfast. “How are we gonna get to Mauville, Nina?” he asked idly. He could go down through Petalburg, across the river near Oldale… but then he’d still need a way to do that. He didn’t have a Pokemon that could use surf, let alone the badges for it… He furrows his brows, thinking. “I think we may need to call in a favor.”

Wash took a deep breath before pushing open the doors to the gym. It was decorated to look like a rocky mountain crag, and he wasn’t sure if its state of dusty disrepair added to the image or diminished it. He didn’t stop to think on it too hard; however, marching right up to where Connie sat perched on a rock staring absently at the ceiling. She was one of the gym’s few junior trainers, and the only one on duty at the time.  
“Connie, I need your help,” he stated flat out, startling her so bad she almost fell off of her perch.  
“W-Wash!?” she stammered as she stood up. “… Never thought I’d see you in here,” she added after a pause with a lilt of a laugh. She brushed he shaggy brown hair away from her face as she looked between him and Nina trailing at his feet. She mewed at Connie in response.  
Wash looked up, still all business, hefting the bag on his back, “you still have your wailmer, right? And the Dynamo badge?”  
She nodded slowly processing, “Yeah… you need to… go somewhere? For that mission you mentioned before?”  
“Yeah, I need to get to Mauville. I just need a ride across the river up on route 103. I know it’s a bit of a trip but—” he was cut off as Connie put a finger to his lips.  
She looked around, nervous for some reason, “I mean, sure, in theory I can. I do owe you a favor but it’s just that I can’t exactly just leave—”  
“Oh heeeeeeeyy Wash!” the flamboyant voice Wash had somehow forgotten he was dreading cut in.  
He hesitated to turn his head, as if the person it belonged to would go away if he didn’t acknowledge it. But that was wishful thinking, it had never worked before. “Hey, Donut,” he replied with no real enthusiasm as he looked over at the gym leader with the teased blond hair and wide smile.  
There was nothing disingenuous about the look on his face, but for some reason talking to Franklin Donut was always an awkward experience. There was just something about the way he spoke…  
“So it’s your first time, right?” Donut asked, causing Wash to make a face as he almost choked on air.  
“My… what?” he paused to work out what exactly Donut had meant. “I mean… I haven’t left Rustboro since I was little, yeah,” he added tiredly as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.  
“I can’t let you do that!” Donut responded so cheerfully Wash almost didn’t realize what he’d said, despite the dramatic pose pointing in Wash’s face he’d assumed.  
“You— What!?” Wash squawked incredulously, swatting away the finger.  
Donut continued confidently as if responding to a different expected reply, “That’s right! If you want to leave town with one of my junior trainers, then you’d better blow me,” he stopped in the middle of his rehearsed sounding speech to cough, “away with your skills as a trainer!”  
Wash glanced over at Connie, who had her forehead planted firmly in her hand, stuck between being wildly embarrassed and uttering the world’s loudest sigh. Nina mewed at his feet and he examined the ceiling as if asking a higher power for the strength to deal with this nonsense. “Fine. Are you ready?” Wash asked before being hit with an immediate and instinctive sense of regret.  
Donut pulled a pokeball off his belt as he gestured for Connie to move out of the way, “Oh, I’m not just ready—”  
“Donut—” Wash tried to interrupt.  
“I’m _rock hard_!” he finished enthusiastically as Wash cursed under his breath. Donut cleared his throat, straightening up, “My name is Franklin Delano Donut, leader of the Rustboro Pokemon gym!” he recited, posing dramatically as he recited lines Wash knew he must’ve memorized, “Do you have what it takes to plow me and my Pokemon? Give me your best shot!”  
Wash just shook his head at Connie as he knelt down next to Nina, ignoring whatever Donut was saying as he sent out a Nosepass. “Nina, Wake-up Slap, just…. Keep doing it until it’s over.” The skitty mewed in reply before darting into battle.

The thing about only working with a single Pokemon for eight years is that, even if you’re not going out of your way to battle with them, they tend to get pretty strong. With that and the fighting type move under her belt, Nina took out each of Donut’s rock-type Pokemon with little effort.  
“Jeez Wash, you really pounded my—”  
“So we can go now, right?” Wash said before Donut could finish whatever unnecessarily suggestive statement he was about to make.  
Donut pouted, though he wasn’t sure if it was a reaction to the outcome of the battle or his innuendo being interrupted. “Yeah, I guess…” he said sadly before turning away, muttering something about asking the league again to turn this into a fairy type gym.  
“Nina’s a force of nature as usual,” Connie quipped with a grin, standing up to follow Wash out of the gym.  
“She’s got Caleb’s spirit, after all.” Wash replied as he scooped the victorious pink fluffy Pokemon up.  
“Right, you got her from him before he moved,” she nodded, checking something on her phone and then peeking in a few pockets of the bag hanging at her side before looking back up at him. “If you want to take the long way around we could stop in Dewford to say hi to him. Take the sea routes up through Slateport,” Connie suggested, smiling at him.  
It was a nice offer, but Wash just blinked as his train of thought came to a screeching halt. “What? Caleb doesn’t…”  
“Waaait!” Donut’s shouted behind them in a warbled voice, sliding to a stop in front of Wash, holding out a gym badge.  
Wash stared at it dumbly a moment, his thoughts still hung up on the fact that Caleb had… moved back to Hoenn and not told him? Never moved that far in the first place? Connie wouldn’t make something like that up. “Oh… no, that’s ok Donut I don’t need it.”  
“I insist!” Donut cried; attaching it to Wash’s jacket before he could protest further. “This is the first step on your Pokemon journey, Wash!”  
“No it isn’t.”  
“You have so many battles ahead of you!”  
“I’m coming right back,” Wash corrected as he patted Donut on the shoulder before walking past, “I’ll see you in a few days.”  
“Good luck!” Donut called after them, leaving Wash uncertain if he’d properly gotten through to the man, “don’t forget you can use the HM Cut outside of battle now!”  
“We won’t need it!” Connie chimed in, yelling back at Donut, “tell my parents I’m taking Wash to Mauville!”  
“Okay!” Donut yelled back, having to speak louder and louder as they continued walking away, cupping both hands around his mouth. “Say hi to Sarge for me!!” he added as he waved.  
Wash raised an eyebrow at Connie, “Sarge?” He didn’t know the name, no, more like it sounded less like a name and more like a title.  
Connie just shook her head, “Mauville gym leader…. It’d be nice to avoid him but… Well, you’ll meet him. Trust me.” She looked down to adjust the three pokeballs that hung off of her belt. Wash wasn’t sure how she remembered which one was which. He only ever had the one, but rarely even put Nina in it anyway. “So… did you want to take the long way so we can stop in Dewford?” she asked tentatively, probably because of the way he’d reacted when she first asked.  
Wash frowned as they turned back to this topic and angry questions swarmed again into his brain. “Since when does Caleb live in Dewford?” he asked after a long uncomfortable pause where he considered the situation.  
“A few months ago… I’m surprised he didn’t try to get a hold of you. Do you want his pokeNav number?” Connie offered, clearly concerned by the frown on Wash’s face.  
He shook his head, slowly. “No. Let’s go to Dewford.” He smirked dryly, “that should be the next stop on my Pokemon journey, right?” He looked down on the map on his pokeNav as they left Rustoboro’s city limits and he saw Petalburg woods across the bridge.  
Connie laughed a little, “can’t argue with that. It should only add a day or two to our trip, I think. Willie may look like a fat blob but he’s pretty fast.”  
Wash nodded, remembering the rotund appearance of Connie’s Wailmer. He started to type a message to his aunt regarding their game plan, but before he could finish-  
“Hey, you! I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!”


End file.
